Welcome

This blog is a running journal of the eleven 2009 CLC Mission Helpers to India.

If past trips are any indication, and the Lord continues to bless this effort, the Mission Helpers will have the opportunity to reach upwards of 3,000 children with God's saving Word. Some of these children are members of our sister congregations in India, but many have never heard the truth of God's word concerning the forgiveness and salvation that has been won for them through the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Please come back often to see pictures and read updated journal entries from the 2009 Mission Helpers to India. And please remember the Mission Helpers and those they go to assist and serve in your prayers.

A Mission Helper video is available for your viewing at the bottom of this page. Please check it out.

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

From Dorena Wiechmann

We landed in Chennai at about 4:30 in the morning. It took us about an hour to get through customs (they had to take all of our temperatures to see if we had the swine flu!) and then we walked about of the airport for our very first look at India! The one thing that I most noticed is that people were everywhere. Crowds and crowds of people. There was so little room anywhere. It is a little frightening at first. The temperature was really nice because it was so early yet, and there were people asleep everywhere, just lying by the roads! Pastor Ude and his driver, Kumar, came to meet us with a minivan and a small bus, so we piled all of our luggage in, and then we piled all of us in on top! We started off for Pastor Ude’s apartment, and we were in for a big surprise.The driving is like a wild carnival ride. Everywhere you look are motorcycles, rickshaws, buses, cars, bicycles, and carts going at top speed! Several times we would go barreling towards what looked like a bad accident waiting to happen and just as we were clasping our hands over our mouths to hold in the gasps of horror, the cars would part just at the last minute, and we sped safely on the through, honking vigorously! Everyone honks in India. The horn is just as important as the steering wheel (although both of them are on the wrong side of the vehicle : ) ) Gradually we came to realize that everyone really did know what they were doing, accidents rarely happen, it was perfectly acceptable to come within four inches of running over people, and that best of all, our Heavenly Father can protect us just as easily on the roads of Chennai as on the untraveled SD back roads : )I love India driving now! It is so exciting. Almost like taking part in a fast paced video game that came to life!

Anyway we made it safely to Pastor Ude’s house, (his apartment is on the 3rd floor!) and took a wonderful shower. It felt wonderful to be clean. Then we all went for a walk around Pastor Ude’s par t of the neighborhood. (Oh!!! I just say my 1st monkey! It is July 16th we are all in the bus together heading for the orphanage at Guntur : ) ) In some ways our walk was so so sad. The people seem very poor and many will try to get you to buy from them, or give them something. It is just so heartbreaking to see human beings in such physical poverty. Sometimes it is hard to remember that their true poverty is in their hearts not their bodies. We are so rich to have our Savior! Sometimes you just feel like running up and trying to give them money, food, or anything to make their lives better, when what they really need is the Bread of Life, and the precious living Water. Once, when we were walking past a shop I saw a tiny black kitten. It was so skinny and almost dead from starving but it could still cry. I felt like crying too, it was just so sad. But if we only thought about the sad things and the insurmountably things yet to do, we would never have Joy. Our Lord is working in India, and all things are in His hands. It is He that is doing the work not us. We have our Treasures in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

1 comment:

Thanks to everyone on the Mission Helper Team for sharing your stories. It is a blessing for those of us at home to hear the steps involved in spreading the Good News! We keep all the helpers and their families at home in our daily prayers. Jesus Bless.